Mabton water woes still center stage

MABTON - Could a new city well be in Mabton's future? While public works crews continue to work to get well #4 back on line, Mabton City Council has found itself worrying that well #5, now supplying the city's water lines, won't hold. During Tuesday night's regularly scheduled meeting, the council found itself worrying that Mabton may need to dig a new well to ease its perennial water use problems. Mayor Vera Zavala said the city crews are hoping to find a quick fix to the pump failure, but "...we have to be prepared for other possibilities." Since Mabton's primary well #4 failed last Thursday, the city has been relying on back-up well #5, which has traditionally ran low during the summer months. Zavala said the city storage tanks are not being replenished quickly enough to satisfy all of the city's residents and emergency service needs. She said city crews are not confident well #5 will be able to ease the water shortage now impacting the city residents. "We have a team of experts on site trying to determine what is causing the pump failure," said Zavala. She said the problem arose when the public works crews went to inspect well #4 last week. All that came out were gusts of air, alerting the public works team to a problem, Zavala explained. It was at that time crews switched over to well #5 to carry the city water load. "We don't know if the pump is stuck in the sand or something worse," she said. Zavala issued an emergency alert to the community last Thursday urging residents to monitor and conserve water. She asked residents to use the "even -odd" day approach to watering their yards and to refrain from unnecessary water use.